Nightborne model can't stay this way

Wyrmrest Accord
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So while Nightborne are in dire need of more appearance options, as well as an overall rework on their model, here void elves are…getting high elf options because the Alliance whined enough about it and were pandered to -yet- again? Are you seriously telling me that Blizzard plans to just leave nightborne looking like what they’ve been nicknamed as: ‘Crack Elves’? for another expansion?

The playable nightborne looks nothing like the NPC counterparts that everyone was expecting and excited over, while as literally every other allied race looks just like their NPC counterparts, and therefore got the full bill of what they grinded out that reputation for. Please tell me why the nightborne, the literal remnants of the true-blooded highborn, renowned for their beauty, elegance, and master of arcane, look hideous in comparison to their lowborne counterparts (kaldorei).

I’m sure someone might say “Ohh, it’s because we have the former withered nightborne, so they look like that because of recovering.” And that makes 100% sense–EXCEPT that it makes literally no sense; and why? Exhibit A: Thylssra. Exhibit B: Valtrois. Exhibit C: Occuleth. All of them were former withered, and all three of them look exactly like how healthy nightborne should look. In fact, Thylssra apparently looks so good, that Lor’themar’s willing to jump into a cringy fanfic-tier relationship with her.

There’s only two justifiable reasons for why nightborne look like the way they do for the players: They either had an intern handle the player model, and the boss just handed them a stained picture of a classic WoW nelf and said “Here. Make this blue.” The other way their hideous appearance could be justified is if Blizzard revealed that they let someone who hates the thought of another elf race being added handle it and they purposely made nightborne ugly just to be spiteful. The way nightborne player model was handled was like a surgeon performing open-heart surgery with rusted tools.

Last I checked, void elves are NOT a core race, and should not be getting a single new option if no other allied race is. I want to main my nightborne in Shadowlands, but why should I main something that’s going to be considerably unattractive compared to the core races and all other allied races? It’s depressingly hilarious that Rule 34 3D artist can take the NPC model and put various outfits on them, and scale the model down to be player-worthy, and yet the literal company that created nightborne can’t, and so we’re left with this thing that doesn’t identify as nightborne besides the racial label slapped on it.

All in all, the player model looks rushed, lazy, sloppy, and no dedication was put into it. If you can make a whole new expansion with new creatures, enemies, etc, then making an already existing thing (NPC nightborne) transition properly to being made for players should be rudimentary work; and if someone can’t do that properly, they should be replaced. The pandering to Alliance needs to stop, and nightborne need to be fixed.

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I like the nightborne models (it’s my main right now), but I do agree they need a ton more customization. I think we don’t know the full extent of SL customization yet. I hope we’ll see all the allied races get at least a few more options.

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I agree that the Nightborne models leave a lot to be desired, and they definitely need a substantial increase in customization options.

However, giving the Alliance the ability to customize into a race that has been requested for years, and been repeatedly denied to them in condescending ways for stupid reasons, is not “pandering.”

The High Elf issue has existed for much longer than the Bad Nightborne Models issue. They’ll get to the Nightborne eventually.

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the female nightborn look fine.

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I agree, I’m sorry that Horde players feel so disappointed about a legitimately cool race getting–

On second thought, I hope they get stuck with raisinface forever.

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I agree, they look horrible compared to the NPC models, and I really hope blizz does something soon. if it weren’t for the fact that’d they just don’t look ALL that great i’d probably be maining one or atleast have on that I play often instead of playing them, getting them to 60 and going “ehh” and not wanting to level one more cause I wouldn’t feel that great about getting one to max level.

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Do Nightborne need new customisation? Yeah, 100%.

I don’t think Blizz will ignore them though, long term. I suspect it’ll be more like the Blood Elves in WoD - for a time the only old race to have the old models while everyone else was all beautified. Blizz has indicated they’re not ignoring allied races, just not prioritising them right now. But there’s light at the end of the tunnel, because the Blood Elves got their new models eventually - and so too will Nightborne get their customisation.

Why then did the void elves get new options?

They got new eye and skin options only, so far. Which was very easy to do, because they literally have the exact same model as blood elves. Blizz just gave them a lot of the exact same customisations that Blood Elves had. They haven’t yet made new ones - but probably will in time. The hairstyles, for example, remain limited.

Nightborne do actually have an entirely unique model, even if it is ADAPTED from the Night Elven skeleton. In theory MAYBE you could give Nightborne a bunch of options that the Night Elves have… but somehow I don’t think it’d be great for them. A lot of the Night Elven customisations appear to be capturing the more unkempt and rustic side of Kaldorei society - something that would be blatantly out of place in Suramar.

I think Nightborne customisations are coming, and we’ve just gotta be patient about it.

In the meantime can you like, stop making it out to be the alliance’s fault? Like, omg it’s not a competition. We all have favourite races and want new and better customisations for them.

Like, I want Sarestha to have a ponytail. Even with the new undead hairstyles, it seems as though it’s not to be :sob:

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Obligatory.

https://i.imgur.com/7W7mlry.png

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Dude shut up. For real.

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And that’s a period.

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unnecessary faction cattiness aside I would love to play a nightborne male if they weren’t the ugliest race in the game

Sometimes I do wonder if this stuff is intentional. I mean, whoever made the model is both a professional artist and, well, a human being. Any person with those qualifications can see that the male nightborne’s face is totally unappealing on every level. So was some art director deliberately saying, “make them look like angry, deranged old men. all of them.”? Why? Did they not want people to play this race too much for faction identity reasons? Or what?

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Who knows. One thing’s for certain is that my nightborne can all be beautiful by wearing a mask that covers the lower half of her face.

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The void elves are just first among the allied races. This isn’t a competition nor are nightborne losing the race. There are races not even touched upon just yet for vanilla races, and i feel velves needed something too go alongside the belves so people would stop having anxiety about blue eyes for belves and know velves get them and belf skins as well.

Nightborne will come. Just like how it took this long for nelves. They can’t do everything at once.

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It’s because they’re Legion ARs. All of them have the absolute bare minimum of effort. The Nightborne men are awful because Night Elf men are awful. They could have put effort into making the eyes at least squinted but they didn’t. Night Elves before the WoD update had squinted eyes, they’re gone.

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Night elf men are bad but nightborne are so much worse. I can tolerate playing a NE male (albeit I can only stand “that one face that everyone uses”), but they even made the one decent face look worse on nightborne. They could’ve put in less effort and just copied the faces directly (the treatment Void Elves got) and achieved better results.

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Nightborne faces are worse, but their proportions actually look a lot better.

I mean, for the most part they did for the women. It’s why folks tolerate them better.

I wouldn’t curse any race with the Night Elf mens body or casting animations. Night Elf men are awful. At least the Zandalari were altered into a unique frame/skeleton with it as a base.

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My understanding is that, typically, stuff like Nightborne or old Sonic Movie Sonic are the result of producer meddling, studio politics, or both. In fact, I don’t know that the actual line developers doing the grunt work are to blame for most of the things we moan about in WoW.

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Yeah I do think nightborne males look fine from the neck down, maybe better than NE men and their weird hourglass shape. But the faces are unforgivable

Right, you don’t get something this bad if you just let an artist follow their instincts. But it is hard to understand what the reason could’ve been. If it was simply managers rushing the artists I assume we’d get the normal NE model with different skin colors.

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Oh, there’s the Alliance main.

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Imagine thinking folks don’t play both factions in WoW.

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